Minnesota Wild are battling against an identity crisis

For years, the Minnesota Wild have lacked a true identity. Things haven’t changed so far under new general manager BillGuerin.

The Minnesota Wild have the worst problem you can possibly have in hockey – an identity crisis. And the worst part is, it’s not Xs and Os on the ice. In fact, the Wild are pretty straight forward on the ice. They play structured defense, get the puck to the point, throw it on net, and hope for the best.

But the identity crisis is real. It’s in the office and it’s in the locker room. First off, the Wild have no idea who they are when to comes to compete and effort level. One game, they’ll fight to get back in the game, play great team hockey and come away with the win. The very next game, they’ll come out completely flat without any drive or motivation.

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Take the past two games. The Wild were down two in Anaheim but scored four unanswered to come from behind and win. They looked energized and on the same page. There was even a practice update after the game where it was mentioned many times just how upbeat the Wild were after the win.

In their next game, they took on the San Jose Sharks. A day after being upbeat, they came out flatter than a pancake and were down 4-0 after 20 minutes.

There are examples of this same issue throughout the entire season thus far. Take the back to back with Montreal. In Montreal, the Wild looked like they didn’t want to be there. The effort was all over the place, and the Wild got ran out of the building.

A few days later in Minnesota, the Wild came back from behind twice, beating the Habs 4-3. It’s quite literally a grab bag, and you never know which Wild team will show up to play on any given night.

But that’s not even the worst of it. The Wild have no idea what their identity is from an organizational standpoint. Owner Craig Leipold by all accounts wants to do whatever it takes to win a Stanley Cup. He’s not stingy, he wants to have a successful franchise. But his desire to retool instead of rebuild may be to his downfall.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not want to tank. I actually believe it’s unethical to intentionally tank, and I believe making the playoffs is the best thing a franchise can do. The problem is, the Wild don’t know if they’re retooling or rebuilding.

It’s clear Leopold wants to retool, but Paul Fenton was more on the side of getting younger and faster, also known as tanking. As it stands right now, Bill Guerin is still playing it patiently. While I respect that, the sooner the Wild chose a path and stick to it, the sooner there can be some consistency on the ice.

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The Wild have an identity crisis from top to bottom. I think it’s Bill Guerin and Leipold decide on a path and do everything they can to make that path happen. The longer they wait, the more frustrated the State of Hockey will be.

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